An Infrastructure Engineer and Road Safety expert, Dr Olukayode Ibijola, revealed that no fewer than 28,195 people were killed in road accidents between 2013 and 2019 across the country.
He added that 62 per cent of the road accidents were caused by disobedience to safety rules and road construction designs which misled commuters, resulting in human errors and fatality.
Delivering a paper titled, ‘Road Safety Challenges in Nigeria’ at the Ado-Ekiti branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, on Friday, he said most road accidents in the country were not reported.
The lecture was attended by road safety enforcement agencies in the state as well as Engineers in both the public and private sectors.
Ibijola who has been trained in Transportation Engineering and Road Safety identified road designs, road marks and signs, road audit, and poor traffic control among others as reasons for deaths on the Nigerian highways.
Ibijola lamented that many Nigerian roads are not marked while some are poorly marked while some road markings are, “faded and these make the drivers disobey the marking rules, leading to lane indiscipline said many drivers become reckless and ignore speed limits warnings when the roads are good.”
According to him, ” although not all road accidents in Nigeria are reported and recorded, no fewer than 28,195 people were killed in road accidents between 2013 and 2019.
“Road audit is an act of auditing the road design and the road after construction in order to make necessary corrections if need be. This is to enhance the safety of road users before opening the road to public use.
“The road safety audit is very important, and it is a global practice to audit road design as well as a constructed road.
“It is not impressive that despite the activity of accident, a deadly disease in Nigeria, the country does not have a road safety audit manual neither do we practice road audit on any Nigerian road before and after construction.”
Ibijola who currently works for the Ekiti State government stressed that ” a holistic approach through engineering, education, enforcement, emergency management, encouragement, engagement and continuous evaluation would enhance a safe system whereby the road, vehicle and road users will be safe.
“Education, campaign and sensitization programmes should be used to educate the drivers on the need to maintain vehicles.
“Do the required checks like brake oil, radiator water, spare tyre, wipers etc. All vehicles in the country should be made to undergo periodic vehicle inspection to determine the suitability of operation on Nigerian roads.
“The government should be enlightened on the importance of vehicle inspection rather than mere revenue generation,” Ibijola advised.
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